Ernest Rutherford was born on August, 30, 1871 in New Zealand. He was famous for a huge breakthrough in the fields of radioactivity and nuclear physics. He discovered alpha and beta rays, and began the laws of radioactive decay. He got his early education in New Zealand then getting a full scholarship to Cambridge University. There he met J.J. Thomson and became his first graduate student at Cavendish Laboratory. He invented a detector of electromagnetic waves. He began experimenting with Thomson on conduction of electricity through gases. But soon after he left that field and turned to radioactivity. At Montreal, McGill University he worked with Frederick Soddy on radioactive decay. Then with Niels Bohr on the structure of the atom at Manchester University. He also worked with the military on submarine detection. He was also famous for the gold foil experiment. This experiment showed that in the atom there are positively charges molecules and also negatively changed particles to balance the atom out. This experiment was to test the plum pudding model, which was a model to explain that there are positive and negative particles in the atom. He sent a beam of energetic Helium at a gold foil, some of the particles pasted straight through, when some scattered into odd angles. Thus proving that there are Negatively charged particles in the atom but they aren't in the center because some of the energy passed in between the atom and the negatively charged particles. In all Rutherford was a substantially amazing scientist and we have learned so much from him today. He also received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1908 for his investigations into disintegration of elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances. He died in 1937 and will be forever missed.
Ernest Rutherford was born on August, 30, 1871 in New Zealand. He was famous for a huge breakthrough in the fields of radioactivity and nuclear physics. He discovered alpha and beta rays, and began the laws of radioactive decay. He got his early education in New Zealand then getting a full scholarship to Cambridge University. There he met J.J. Thomson and became his first graduate student at Cavendish Laboratory. He invented a detector of electromagnetic waves. He began experimenting with Thomson on conduction of electricity through gases. But soon after he left that field and turned to radioactivity. At Montreal, McGill University he worked with Frederick Soddy on radioactive decay. Then with Niels Bohr on the structure of the atom at Manchester University. He also worked with the military on submarine detection. He was also famous for the gold foil experiment. This experiment showed that in the atom there are positively charges molecules and also negatively changed particles to balance the atom out. This experiment was to test the plum pudding model, which was a model to explain that there are positive and negative particles in the atom. He sent a beam of energetic Helium at a gold foil, some of the particles pasted straight through, when some scattered into odd angles. Thus proving that there are Negatively charged particles in the atom but they aren't in the center because some of the energy passed in between the atom and the negatively charged particles. In all Rutherford was a substantially amazing scientist and we have learned so much from him today. He also received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1908 for his investigations into disintegration of elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances. He died in 1937 and will be forever missed.